Halloween

1:16 pm

Wed October 30, 2013

Austin Dentists Will Buy Back Your Kid's Halloween Candy

Don’t get too attached: A national program has dentists buying back Halloween sweets, and shipping the treats to troops overseas.

flickr.com/tifotter

Here’s a new Halloween practice some dentists see as a treat: Halloween candy buybacks.

Once the little ones have finished trick-or-treating this year, Austin pediatric dentists are ready to buy back their Halloween candy – at a buck a pound.

The buyback program is a part of Operation Gratitude. Annually, Operation Gratitude sends more than 100,000 packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and letters of support – including Halloween candy – to U.S. service members deployed in hostile regions.

"In our experience, the kids are very excited about sending their candy off to overseas,” says Dr. Regina Jensen, one of the participating dentists this year. “And of course, the money earned definitely helps put a smile of any kid's face!”

Naturally, the dental community also sees Operation Gratitude’s Halloween Candy Program as a way to help parents to limit their children's Halloween sugar intake.

"After the sheer joy of collecting all that candy on Halloween night subsides, the reality sets in,” Jensen says. “It's just way too much candy, so kids can put all that excess candy to good use."